HAMPTON, Va. – Educators working with NASA Langley will continue their reach into the community again this year as a part of NASA’s Summer of Innovation.

NASA’s Summer of Innovation kicked off its inaugural year in 2010 as part of President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign. The campaign was launched to help keep middle school students engaged in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) during school breaks.

This year NASA Langley will collaborate with 16 partners to help deliver STEM content through camps to more than 2,000 underserved and underrepresented students in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The camps kicks off today, National Summer Learning Day.

“We are excited about the new collaborations NASA has made and the many possibilities that will come from the work outside our gates,” said Dollie McCown, who manages NASA Langley’s Summer of Innovation program. “When we started the program last year, we had two partnerships, so we’re very pleased with how the program has grown.”

During the camps, education specialists and Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars from NASA Langley will infuse STEM concepts into fun activities related to life science, physical science, Earth and Space Science as well as Engineering.

The 16 community partners, which this year includes four faith-based organizations, are:

* North Carolina Migratory Summer Experience
* Children of Incarcerated Parents-Hampton
* Children of Incarcerated Parents-Newport News
* Children of Incarcerated Parents-Williamsburg
* Virginia Air & Space Center
* Agape Leadership Academy
* Salvation Army Summer Camps
* AstroCHEM Summer of Innovation
* Eastern Shore Migratory Summer Program
* Girls – Rites of Passage Camp
* Crittenden Middle School STEM Summer Institute
* Newport News 21st CCLC STEM Summer Activity Program
* Reading STEM Academy
* STEM – New Light Full Gospel Church
* Summer of Innovation Camps with the Six House a community outreach organization in Hampton
* Mt. Olive Church and First Baptist Church in Newport News and Enoch Baptist Church in Virginia Beach

For more information about the program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/soi